Popcorn
by froodlemonkey
Summary: Friday night is always movie night in the Teller household.


Friday night is always movie night in the Teller household.

It's a tradition that Marilyn and Edgar started in the early days of their relationship, when classes and deadlines and part-time jobs and live music and half-price Jello shots all had an equally valid claim on their attentions, and a sociology major and a molecular engineering student might not cross paths at all if they didn't make the effort.

Once Syndi and Marshall were old enough to sit still for ninety minutes at a time, movie night started the moment Marilyn picked them up from school and took them straight to the video store. Friday nights became the highlight of their week, not just for the oncoming weekend and the end of school, but because it came with four quarters to buy candy and a strict one-tape limit unless it was a special occasion. Whether the extra movies came first, or the frequent gold stars on their spelling, reading and math homework, neither of them could say for sure.

Marshall rents Monster Squad three weeks in a row before Edgar introduces him to Roger Corman and Vincent Price. Marilyn introduces him to the Lost Boys; he's not a fan, but Syndi writes love letters to Kiefer Sutherland and gets an autographed photo in response.

When Syndi is twelve, their parents decide she's responsible enough to watch her baby brother while they see new releases at the multiplex ten minutes away. Now movie night starts when Marilyn tip-taps her way down the stairs in high heels and a trail of expensive perfume, and Edgar grabs her when she is two steps from the bottom, spinning her up and around while she laughs and protests, before setting her down and asking his children if they have ever seen a more beautiful woman. They shake their heads no, and Marilyn plants a pink lipsticked kiss on their foreheads while Edgar hands Syndi money for pizza. After the door is closed and locked behind them, the house becomes a warm, bright castle in a dark, spooky world, and Mars and Syndi have to sit up keeping watch over it until their parents come home safe. Somehow, it doesn't matter that they always fall asleep before that happens, but every week they swear that next time they will definitely do a better job of guarding it.

In Eerie, Marshall and Simon bike over to the World o' Stuff the minute classes let out, buying paper sacks of freshly-made popcorn that are bigger than their heads. Then they pedal at top speed back to Marshall's house, bursting in through the front door with their bounty and throwing themselves on the long white sofa before Syndi comes home from drama club and hogs the best seat to herself.

When Syndi starts thinking SAT scores and extra curricular activities that look good on a college application, movie night becomes something that is mostly shared between Marshall and Simon and Peter Cushing, or Marshall and Simon and Christopher Lee, or Marshall and Simon and Boris Karloff. One night, it's the two of them and Tim Curry in clown makeup, and Mars wakes the next morning to find the living room packed with helium-filled balloons. He's fourteen, and when his screams bring his parents running and he eventually runs out of breath, he can hear Syndi's stifled laughter behind her bedroom door and swears bloody vengeance upon her. Marilyn and Edgar tell her she should know better, but they can hardly get the scolding out through their own mirth.

The day that the popcorn machine at the World o' Stuff breaks down and has to be sent away for repairs, Mister Radford sells the boys a small paper bag of kernels and explains how to make popcorn on the stove. That first time, Mars forgets to put the lid on the saucepan, and he and Simon spend an uncomfortable twenty minutes huddled under the kitchen table while yellow and white flakes fly in all directions.

When Marilyn suggests that maybe he'd like to invite his other friend over for movie night as well, Marshall tells her no way, she's crazy, that will never, ever happen... and then does it anyway. Marilyn leaves an enormous platter of bacon-and-avocado sandwiches out for them, and when Dash takes the top slice off his sandwich and empties the filling into the bowl of popcorn on his lap (because of course he had insisted on having his own bowl instead of sharing from the family-sized one like any normal person) Marshall is horrified, then intrigued, then determined to try everything in the kitchen as a potential popcorn topping.

White chocolate is a unanimous yes. Ketchup is a unanimous no. Worcestershire sauce remains a source of controversy even years later, and even attempting to use mayonnaise is the result of Dash getting Marshall drunk at seventeen, because he never would have eaten that sober. They throw the rug out and Dash finds a new one from somewhere, and swears to Marilyn that yes, he really did pay for it, and yes, he's really sorry, and later whispers to Mars that he's absolutely not and it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen.

Friday night is movie night, and while the titles and the snacks and even some of the participants change over the years, for Mars it's about sharing a time and a space with the people you love, and nothing more complicated than that.


End file.
